Major Victorian builder Grandeur Homes collapses, 110 projects in limbo
Customers have revealed they are “devastated” that the business has gone under.
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A major Victorian builder has collapsed with up to 108 projects now in limbo leaving customers “devastated”.
A previous news.com.au investigation revealed that some customers from Grandeur Homes were facing a “nightmare” as building on their dream homes had stalled and they were left with an agonising lack of information on when they will be complete.
Ten customers shared their story and when news.com.au reached out to the construction company for comment, it engaged a high profile defamation lawyer to respond to questions.
On 21 August news.com.au was told: “Grandeur Homes is solvent and is not in financial difficulty. The suggestion that it is in financial difficulty is false and, if published, would cause substantial and unjustified damage to its trading reputation.”
Yet just nine days later Grandeur Homes was placed into external administration on 30 August.
Insolvency firm Cor Cordis has been appointed to oversee the administration.
One devastated customer is Karishma Seechurn. She has been trying to build her dream home for four years.
She originally chose to build with Snowdon Developments in 2020 before the company collapsed and went on to sign on with Grandeur Homes in 2023.
The 32-year-old said the stress is “next level” given Grandeur Homes is the second builder she has worked with to go under.
“I’m super stressed and upset,” she told news.com.au in tears. “The stress of having two builders going under is just unimaginable.”
The instrument technician said she is mentally exhausted from her experience trying to build a home and is concerned about what this means for her house.
“I’m really worried about the situation of the house as I just have scaffolding all around and the top is frames. They don’t look good anymore, they have been weathered badly,” she said.
“The company said the roof tiles were going to be on site but it never came, so now it will be over a year that the frames have been exposed.
“Even when I start the process with insurance that will take a few months. I don’t know if the next builder I will appoint if they will be OK to work with the frames. The company have put the bricks downstairs but the company haven’t put the roof tiles.”
News.com.au has reached out to Grandeur Homes for comment
Do you have a story? Contact sarah.sharples@news.com.au
Ms Seechum said she was particularly worried financially as she got her mortgage two years ago and the house still isn’t finished.
“There’s the finance situation and interest rates and everything that comes along as even though they have gone under I still have to pay my mortgage,” she added.
“I’ve got electricity and water bills and my monthly land mortgage repayments and construction interest rates are way higher. I’m stuck with the bank with super high interest rates and then daily expenses on top of that.”
Another customer, Abhishek Marpally, said his wife and he were “devastated”.
He said the family had paid almost $340,000 to Grandeur Homes after construction commenced in June 2023.
The house was due to be delivered in September this year.
He said the family also found it hard to get information on when their build would be complete.
“The new home excitement is not left at all now. I am just working full time and driving Uber to catch up with ongoing expenses,” he said.
He added with interest rate rises their monthly repayments had skyrocketed and they were paying rates, bills for construction property, land tax, rent, gas, water and electricity.
Sam*, who did not want his real name used due to the nature of his job, believes he may have one of the oldest uncompleted houses among Grandeur Home’s customers.
He signed a contract with the building company in October 2021 and construction commenced in May 2022.
He said the news of Grandeur Homes going under was “shocking”.
“We hope insurance won’t take too long so that we end this nightmare,” he said.
Just last week, Grandeur Homes said in the majority of cases, building projects were proceeding without incident and the clients are satisfied, their lawyers added.
It added Grandeur Homes was sympathetic to the difficulties faced by clients whose projects are affected by delays, but in many cases, these are due to factors affecting the Australian construction industry as a whole, and are beyond their client’s control, their lawyers added.
“Grandeur Homes is working hard to mitigate the impact of delays, and it maintains regular and open communication with its clients to keep them informed of progress,” they said.
Grandeur Homes lawyers said the company was currently in the process of finalising several projects and is working hard to deliver for all of their clients.
“Grandeur Homes sympathises with the frustration and hardship of those who have been affected by the industry-wide delays experienced in recent years,” the lawyers added.
“They assure all of their clients that they are doing everything possible to complete all outstanding projects.”
Construction work will be paused during the voluntary administration process.
Sam Kaso and Daniel Juratowitch of restructuring advisory firm Cor Cordis had been appointed as voluntary administrators.
They will urgently assess the business operations and explore all options to restructure or recapitalise the businesses, including through a deed of company arrangement.
“We’ve commenced an urgent review of Grandeur Homes’ financial position and are working with parties to explore the possibility of developing a proposal to restructure the business,” they told news.com.au.
“We understand there are 108 homeowners affected by our appointment and have been made aware some homeowners have had difficulties obtaining updates from the company on the progress of their construction recently.
The administrators have set up a new dedicated email address for customers, employees, and creditors to provide regular updates as they work through the voluntary administration process, they added.
sarah.sharples@news.com.au
Originally published as Major Victorian builder Grandeur Homes collapses, 110 projects in limbo
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